Yesterday was a tale of two Westminsters: rumour and policy.
On one side, despite the no-man’s-land pause in proceedings for King Charles III to deliver the State Opening of Parliament, Westminster’s attention was fixed on Labour’s psychodrama and the now widely accepted reports that the Health Secretary Wes Streeting will today launch a leadership bid against Sir Keir Starmer. On the other, there was the King’s Speech itself – the Government’s legislative agenda for the next parliamentary session – which offered precious little to inspire confidence.
Attention was fixed so firmly on Labour that the opposition parties were largely crowded out, despite revelations that a London council is investigating Green leader Zack Polanski over alleged council tax failures, while Reform UK’s Nigel Farage faces a parliamentary inquiry over the £5 million donation he received from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.
Yet Kemi Badenoch’s barnstorming Commons performance dragged the spotlight back to the Conservatives as she addressed both issues: that the Prime Minister has lost the locker room, and that his original plan was never up to the task.
“They want to lead our country; they can’t even lead a coup,” she jibed.
She spoke of the despondency on Labour’s benches, of “the dread as they are sent out yet again to defend the indefensible”. She even confessed to feeling “sorry” for Labour backbenchers.
There heckles from across the chamber, including a visibly animated Streeting, who was then treated to both barrels. Badenoch’s barbs – “do your job, do your job… there’s no point in him giving me dirty looks, we all know what he has been up to” – were completely off the cuff. She was enjoying herself. But her exasperation at the state of affairs in the country was also unmistakable.
When she declared that “unless you fix the structures of government, everyone will continue to fail,” there was a genuine urgency behind it. It was an uncomfortable truth: there has to be a serious plan for governing.
“They hate being in government,” she said of Labour. “They hate the responsibility. They just want to scratch the itches they had in opposition.”
The Tory leader was interrupted by Labour grandee Emily Thornberry, who criticised her for “lecturing” the Government benches rather than using the opportunity to set out what the Conservatives would actually do.
Badenoch’s response was biting: “Oh, I’m not done yet. There is plenty more coming. The Honourable Lady says she is getting a lecture — she is getting a lecture. We’re all getting a lecture because we are legislators of the United Kingdom. We were sent here to fix difficult things, not to focus on our personal hobby horses, ranging from the petty to the puerile.”
Her diagnosis of Farage was similarly pointed. He is “not the cause of Britain’s problems,” she told Labour benches to audible astonishment, but merely “a symptom” – a “failure of the political class to focus on what matters”. Solve that failure, and Farage fades.
And if Thornberry wanted substance, she need only consult the Conservative Party’s newly published 41-page Alternative King’s Speech: a detailed legislative programme built around a “stronger economy” and a “stronger country”, comprising 16 bills covering welfare, energy, deregulation, immigration, defence, and law and order. It proposes leaving the European Court of Human Rights, tightening PIP eligibility for lower-level mental health conditions, repealing much of the Employment Rights Act, and scrapping net zero legislation.
Whether or not you agree with every policy the Conservative alternative puts forward, or even with some of the diagnosis, the publication itself is an impressive one: complete with bills to introduce and laws to repeal. It signals that the Conservatives intend not to repeat Labour’s mistake of moving from opposition to office with no workable plan for delivery. It also marks a notable departure from previous Conservative habits of vagueness and rhetorical thinness.
Set against that, the Government’s own offering was deeply underwhelming – and at points actively concerning.
There was no defence readiness bill, and no date for publishing the long-promised defence investment plan. There were no meaningful welfare reforms after Labour’s rebels forced retreat. There was no detail on implementing the Government’s much-vaunted indefinite leave to remain reforms. Instead came reheated proposals on digital ID, a ban on trail hunting, the abolition of NHS England, and measures to drag veterans through the courts. Reassured?
And this is Labour’s real problem. Even if Streeting does move against Starmer, what exactly is the alternative? Labour MPs, by and large, seem to agree with the legislative programme unveiled yesterday. They cannot bring themselves to confront the deeper structural failure at its heart.
That, more than any leadership intrigue, is what should worry the country.